Silent Movies

crawjo · August-20th-2004, 01:20 AM

Tonight I watched, for the first time, The Passion of Joan of Arc. I really liked it, especially the way Dreyer used all those close-up shots. From a narrative perspective, it was a little disorienting, but I thought it brought you into Joan's world very well.

What are your favorite silent movies?

moneyp · August-20th-2004, 01:40 AM

You just watched one of them.

Off the top of my head:

The Phantom Carriage
The Wind
Nosferatu
Haxan
La Roue (The Wheel)
The Thief of Baghdad
Greed
The Last Laugh
Sunrise
Napoleon (needs to be seen in a proper theater... easily my favorite filmgoing experience)
Pandora's Box
The Blue Angel
L'Age d'Or
Zemlya (Earth)

plus the various works of Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd.

Jesse · August-20th-2004, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crawjo

Tonight I watched, for the first time, The Passion of Joan of Arc. What are your favorite silent movies?

You actually named one of my top 10. I hadn't seen The Passion in it's entirety until the Criterion restoration. The Anonymous 4 music is astonishing, given the failed efforts to append music decades after a silent's release. On the "talkie" tip, see Day of Wrath if you haven't. Another excoriation of religious persecution, told in very human story-telling.
Another Dreyer great is Vampyr.
The sine quo non of silents, imo, is M. After 6-7 viewings over 25 years, it always disturbs and astonishes.

Half a dozen Keaton films would make my list. I own a VHS copy of Keaton's Film, the 28 minute film Beckett wrote (his only foray into the medium). Keaton is an Everyman that prefigures Eraserhead. It's really creepy/comic like that.

crawjo · August-20th-2004, 02:02 AM

Thanks for the recs guys. Ever since I started my Netflix subscription I've been trying to watch all these great films that I've never seen because I never really invested the time or energy to look into the art of cinema.

Nosferatu and the Thief of Baghdad are both ones that I am really intersted in checking out.

Up next is the second film I will see in Bergman's "Faith" Trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly.

Sergio Zamora · August-20th-2004, 02:24 AM

Murnau's 'The Last Laugh'. Chaplin's 'City Lights'

Jon Abbey · August-20th-2004, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesse

The sine quo non of silents, imo, is M. After 6-7 viewings over 25 years, it always disturbs and astonishes.

that's the one I was going to post as my pick also. I just saw a great conversation between Lang and Godard, one of the extras on the Contempt DVD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crawjo

Up next is the second film I will see in Bergman's "Faith" Trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly.

this is my current favorite Bergman movie, and probably had a stronger impact on me than any other movie I've seen in the last six months or so. a perfect movie, and maybe the most musical in its structure of any movie I've ever seen, the four characters interact like an impeccably composed string quartet.

ok, back to silence...

Jesse · August-20th-2004, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

that's the one I was going to post as my pick also. I just saw a great conversation between Lang and Godard, one of the extras on the Contempt DVD.

Quote:

o.k, back to silence...

Linking Godard & silence here...the sequence in A Band Apart(or whatever title you prefer) with the sudden silence, prior to the fetching spontaneous dance routine, is great, don't you think?

Jon Abbey · August-20th-2004, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesse

Linking Godard & silence here...the sequence in A Band Apart(or whatever title you prefer) with the sudden silence, prior to the fetching spontaneous dance routine, is great, don't you think?

it actually seems a bit contrived to me now, but I'm sure it was incredibly revolutionary at the time.

Sergio Zamora · August-20th-2004, 03:51 AM

Wait. 'M' is silent? I haven't seen it a couple years, but I swear to Satan I don't remember it being silent. I mean, I can hear Peter Lorre whistling right now.

I'm not too crazy about the little dance in 'Band of Outsiders' in general, so I don't remember much of what happened immediately before it.

Jon Abbey · August-20th-2004, 04:26 AM

good point, M was Lang's first talkie. I don't know if I've seen any silents that I really love.

Jesse · August-20th-2004, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sergio Zamora

I'm not too crazy about the little dance in 'Band of Outsiders' in general, so I don't remember much of what happened immediately before it.

I'm still charmed by it (Godard's bride in that part really helped).
I wasn't remarking on the moment of silence preceding the dance being revolutionary, simply it's effect on me. I'd never viewed a film where that was a moment.

I love Why Has Bodhidharma Left For The East?, which is silences interupted by dialogue.

walto · August-20th-2004, 07:27 AM

I like Murnau and Dreyer. Also, of course, Wedekind's "Der Golem"!

stonemonkts · August-20th-2004, 08:14 AM

Crawjo, check this thread

From that thread, here are mine:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Directed by Carl Theodor Dryer - Absolutely amazing cinematography.

Battleship Potemkim (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein - The Russian great's classic film of the Odessa uprising. There are sequences in this film that would take your breath away. This is my personal favorite.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) - Robert Weine. A truly surreal experience.

Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau - This is THE Dracula film to see. Max Shreck will scare the crap out of you. Or at the very least, his performance will have your attention riveted. I love this film.

Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang - Lang's vision of the future. This was a big budget epic with a cast of thousands. Some see it as overly grandiose, both in its sweep and the acting styles employed, but it has always been a visual feast for fans of cinematography and set design.

Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin - Another post-talkie silent classic by Chaplin. The images in this film had a deep effect on my pre-adolescent brain. Nothing before or since so brilliantly depicts the drudgery and monotony of assembly line labor as this film did.

The General (1927) - Clyde Bruckman - Buster Keaton's finest film, imo. If you've enjoyed seeing those classic comic short films of Keaton, this is the film for you. Keaton's performance in this film is astonishing. The movie is very funny too.

Dr Dave · August-20th-2004, 08:44 AM

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Metropolis are the only two silent films I've ever watched, and I've seen them a few times now. The False Maria is one of the all-time great film characters.

I think I'd like to see "The General."